Rally speakers blast Daniels-Bennett education reform agenda | POLL

KYLE GRANTHAM / Courier & Press
Protesters cheer and wave signs as Debra Forrest, an English teacher at Central High School, delivers a speech Thursday afternoon. Protesters gathered to support teachers unions in Evansville and around Indiana in the face of legislation that threatens to reduce collective bargaining rights.

Protesters presented different messages at a rally at the Four Freedoms Monument on the Evansville Riverfront.

EVANSVILLE - Legislation advocates say will improve Indiana's educational output was assailed Thursday by local teachers, who said the reform agenda will have the opposite effect.

A "Freedom Rally for Children and Workers' Rights" drew a few hundred people to Evansville's Riverfront. The audience was heavy with teachers, many of whom wore red shirts reading "Save Our Schools." A few members of other organized labor groups also attended.

Speakers said bills that would allow some low-income students to attend nonpublic schools at taxpayer expense, restrict collective bargaining and create more charter schools would hurt public education by taking away funding and local decision making.

"Here in Evansville we have good private schools, good charter schools and great public schools," said Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel, the opening speaker.

"We have good choices. We don't need help from Indianapolis."

The reform agenda being pushed by Gov. Mitch Daniels, Superintendent for Public Instruction Tony Bennett and Republican legislative leaders is at the heart of a partisan rift in the General Assembly that led to minority Democrats leaving the state, throwing the session into turmoil.

During the rally at the Four Freedoms Monument, speakers urged the audience to stand firm in opposing the bills.

The local teachers association and the Southwestern Indiana Council of Teachers co-sponsored the event.

Jill Wright, a second-grade teacher at Lowell Elementary School in Prince-ton and a leader of the latter group, said public funds should be used for the betterment of traditional public schools.

"Let there be charter schools, let there be private schools, but let them raise their own money," she said.

Charter schools are public schools that are given more flexibility in rules and curriculum.

Wright and the Rev. Phil Hoy, a former Democratic state representative from Evansville, told the audience the voucher bill infringes upon church-state separation.

Teresa Meredith, the Indiana State Teachers Association vice president and a Shelbyville teacher, said debate about issues such as how to close academic achievement gaps should take place, but solutions offered by Republican leaders won't work.

"Let's not take money from public schools to support something that has no record of success," Meredith said.

Rally speaker Debra Forrest, a Central High School teacher, also chided what she called a lack of compromise from all involved parties in crafting the reform agenda.

"Being 'right' in Washington and Indianapolis simply means having the most people in the room."

Signs in the audience read: "Teacher input plus public support minus politics equals real reform," "Let's put children first and politics second" and "Don't shortchange public education."

Teachers in the crowd said state leaders who are pushing the reform agenda aren't listening to them.

"There are a lot of people who are angry with what they are trying to do," said Laura Specht, a Cynthia Heights Elementary School teacher and one of many carrying a sign.

"Gov. Daniels says he's not going to be bullied. Well, that's exactly what he is doing."

While there was no counter demonstration at the rally, leaders of Memorial High School, who have advocated the voucher bill, posted messages on the school's Twitter feed Thursday evening in response to the event.

"We continue to believe educational choice should be the right of all families. Not a decision made by a lobby group or special interest (group)," school officials said in a Tweet.